• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Health / Medicine / Nursing homes, doctors among those who’ll feel state budget cuts

Nursing homes, doctors among those who’ll feel state budget cuts

October 21, 2009 By O. Kay Henderson

DHS Director Charles KrogmeierNursing homes, doctors and other health care providers in Iowa will likely see a five percent reduction in state payments for the care they give poor and disabled Iowans enrolled in the government’s Medicaid program.

That is among the budget-cutting ideas Department of Human Services director Charles Krogmeier delivered to the governor this week.  Krogmeier says there is “some” concern that some health care providers would choose to quit providing care for Medicaid patients.

“Some providers rely on Medicaid for a good share of their revenue,” Krogmeier says.  “Others, it’s a relatively small piece, so depending upon their revenue mix and the kind of programs that they’re getting paid for from Medicaid, you know, it’ll impact each one differently.”

Krogmeier and his staff reviewed the various medical services which qualify for Medicaid coverage, too, and have decided to discontinue covering visits to the chiropractor.

“Medicaid, at the federal level, requires states to provide certain services and then there’s a list of optional services: chiropractic, podiatry — there are others that are optional and we looked at those,” Krogmeier says. “I’m not happy about cutting chiropractic.  I’m sure that people who rely on those services are not going to be happy, but that was the choice, the recommendation that we made.”

The changes in the Medicaid program would become effective December 1st, pending approval from the federal government and state legislators.

Krogmeier’s Department of Human Services is the largest agency in the executive branch of state government.  He has proposed that 79 D.H.S. workers be laid off and another 149 unfilled jobs in the agency would be eliminated.  The department will close its child support call center in Marshalltown, putting about 50 people out of work.

“In the child support collection area, I think payments will still get processed quickly,” Krogmeier says. “But by closing that call center, it will take longer for people to get somebody to call them back to help them with a question — those kinds of things.”

Krogmeier says in the past couple of weeks 250 Department of Human Services employees submitted budget-cutting ideas to him. “And they were pretty uniformly constructive and positive,” Krogmeier says.  “…Nobody is happy, obviously, about this, but it’s been fairly constructive and I think they are understanding of the situation we are in.”

Krogmeier says many Iowans will feel the pinch of these budget cuts.  For example, payments to foster care parents and a subsidy for parents who adopt a child will be cut by five percent.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Health / Medicine, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Chet Culver, Democratic Party, Legislature, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Iowans 65+ now eligible in next phase of Covid vaccinations

Bill would remove transfer limits in five Iowa school districts

Former Iowa sports talk host sentenced to federal prison for ticket scams

Feenstra only member of Iowa delegation not at Biden’s inauguration

Congresswoman Axne favors Biden pandemic relief plan, Hinson not ruling out a ‘yes’

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

UNI adds two nonconference games to basketball schedule

Iowa State-Kansas postponed

Iowa-Michigan State postponed

Fire damage to Riverfront Stadium electrical system will cost Waterloo thousands

Iowa State at Kansas State postponed

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC